Plain Old Chaos
by SobbingGnome
Summary: After the defeat of Nightmare Moon, Twilight Sparkle gets caught up in a plot to kill the Princess of the Night. Forced by Ponies she once trusted into a seemingly impossible task, Twilight has only Spike and a Changeling to rely on and finds herself surrounded by ponies and other creatures that all seem to have their own agenda to fulfill.
1. Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle looked over the apple trees that covered Sweet Apple Acres. Her new friend Applejack was making her way around to buck the trees and collect the apples. She would help her friend but Applejack had told her she did not want her to use magic and Twilight was too physically weak to keep up a reasonable pace with the far more muscled earth pony.

Since it had only been a short while since Twilight had come to Ponyville, Twilight had extremely little to talk about having already mentioned the orange mare's family, in an effort to not seem like an awkward silent addition to Applejack's routine, she decided to talk about the only thing she had in common with her new-found friend; the Nightmare Moon incident.

"So…" Twilight began awkwardly, dragging her hoof against the ground bashfully, "That whole situation with Princess Luna, that was interesting, right?"

Applejack stopped her attempt at bucking a tree and turned to Twilight before responding, she seemed to glare slightly at Twilight as she said. "Well, I just think that it's fantastic that an old mare's tale 'bout a tyrant who tried to take over Equestria got released from the moon, tried to kill us, lost and got made the ruler of Equestria as some kind of consolation prize."

Twilight was shocked by the anger in Applejack's tone. "What?! Why are you so worked up about it? It's not like she meant to kill us or anything, she was possessed by all her negative emotions, Princess Celestia herself said that, do you think that she would Luna go free if she was still dangerous? She's the wisest pony I know; she would never do something that reckless."

Applejack's slight glare morphed into a face of complete rage. "That's the craziest thing I ever heard. do ya really think that Celestia is right and her sister should just be let go. She tried to kill us! Do ya not care about that at all?"

Twilight felt that Applejack had a point. "She did try to kill us a few times, but we freed her with the elements of harmony!" Twilight furrowed her brow in confusion as she pondered her own statement. "Actually, it does seem kinda strange that Princess Celestia let her go when she also said that we freed her from her own jealousy and anger, but if Celestia says that it's okay then I am sure that she has the situation under control."

"The mare's a psychopath Twi, ya' just said it yourself right there, do ya' really think that its wise to put a pony who tried to kill us in charge of Equestria? And that's only this time 'round. She might have killed hundreds last time before she got banished to the moon." Applejack's face lost its angered look as it gained a grin that seemed to grow as she continued to slander Princess Luna." Did ya' ever stop to wonder and think that maybe the Princess would be 'motionally compromised, a thousand years on her own can't have been easy on her."

"Y-you have a point, She might try again sometime, could the Princess even stop her if she tried again?" Twilight tried to rationalize her thoughts. "I bet I can find a book about this, and it will say that the Nightmare Moon was not that bad. I bet they just had... a little fight, a small tiny little fight and nopony even got hurt and then Nightma- I mean Luna got banished to the moon, it's not an issue at all. ".

"Well then, Twi, you should go do that, I need to buck some more apples. You should head off back to town before it gets late."

Looking at the sun, Twilight could see that it was a little closer to the ground then when they had started their trek out to the apple fields to gather apples. Since her friend was clearly in no mood to talk and Twilight was anxious to prove that Luna was completely safe, she decided that it would be best if she took Applejack's suggestion and left.

"You're right, it's getting dark, I should head back. Spike is only a baby dragon after all, no telling what he might have gotten up to while I was gone. Goodbye Applejack."

Before Applejack could say anything, she took off at a brisk pace in the direction of Ponyville. She gave a shaky greeting when she passed Big Macintosh, who seemed to be heading towards Applejack, probably to help her sister finish up the harvest before it got dark.

* * *

By the time Twilight reached the town, it had gotten very dark. She had misjudged just how large the Apple farm was and spent a lot of her time trying to find her way through the apple trees that all seemed to blur together into some sort of endless maze when she was not guided through them by Applejack. Twilight could not see many ponies around, which she remembered was one of the reasons that Princess Luna had gone mad and tried to bring about eternal night, but she was very, very sure that there was enough around for her to not go insane and try to kill them all again. She cursed Applejack under her breath, her words were going to cause some nightmares for her tonight.

While making her way toward her home, Twilight spotted somepony she had not expected: a pony she knew from Canterlot, Lyra, was walking down the path. She decided that she would not miss this rare opportunity to talk to a pony she had met before, they weren't really friends but Twilight desperately wanted to talk to somepony familiar and get her mind off of Nightmare Moon, she set out on a path to intercept her before she disappeared around the corner.

"Hey Lyra! I didn't expect to see you here in Ponyville. So, what brings you here instead of staying in Canterlot? Weren't you going to audition for a spot in the royal orchestra?"

Lyra jumped back and gave a small gasp before turning to Twilight and stammering out. "H-hey Twilight, it's nice to see you, didn't really expect to see you h-here."

"In Ponyville, you mean? Didn't you notice that big announcement with the princess showing up to congratulate us on defeating Nightmare Moon? Where I said that I wanted to stay in Ponyville with my new friends and not go back to Canterlot? How exactly could you miss something like that? It's not like much goes on here."

Lyra shuffled awkwardly on her hooves and glanced about. "Oh yeah, that… I was busy then, making cookies with my friend Bon-Bon, to celebrate, since cookies make everypony happy. Anyway, I really need to get going now, since Bon-Bon will be worried because it's late. Bye!"

"Bye." Lyra had ran off and Twilight doubted that she had heard her. She remembered Lyra acting far less skittish back in Canterlot, but she guessed that since she basically ignored everypony in favour of studying that she might just have misjudged her. She decided that she would speak to Lyra again tomorrow when both of them would be less tired and maybe Lyra would not be in such a rush to get back to Bon-Bon. Lyra might even introduce her.

* * *

Reaching the library, Twilight opened the door and made her way inside. She could see that Spike had been busy working and had shelved all the books. She could not see the little dragon around and she assumed he had gone to sleep in his basket after he finished up his chores around the library. Glad that the place was in order, Twilight headed to the kitchen to make herself a small meal before she went up the stairs. A quick glance confirmed that Spike was sleeping before she went onto her bed, Tomorrow, she would get Spike to search the library for books on what exactly had happened during Nightmare Moon's first attempt at gaining the throne of Equestria.


	2. Chapter 2

When Twilight woke up, the first rays of Celestia's sun were shining through the window above her bed, although the temptation to stay in bed was present, Twilight had a lot to do today and got herself out of the bed. Spike, being a lazy baby dragon, had stayed in his basket instead of getting up to make Twilight breakfast like she had been training him to do since he hatched.

She gave the purple dragon a nudge with her hoof. "Spike! Wake up; you need to go make breakfast now, we've been over this, remember?"

The dragon groaned slightly before looking up at Twilight with eyes that were bloodshot from lack of sleep." Twilight, couldn't you just let me sleep and go make your own breakfast?"

"Nope! We got lots to do today Spike, I need you to search the library for books about Nightmare Moon and her rebellion a thousand years ago. Normally, I would be eating breakfast around now but since you didn't do the one job I tell you to do in the morning, I can't do that now can I?"

Twilight's gaze hardened and she glared at Spike like Princess Celestia had told her to whenever he did something he against her wishes." Spike, if you search the library now, I won't punish you like I did last time, I'll just pretend it never happened, Okay?" Twilight actually felt bad about that, but the Princess insisted that she be firm with him and Twilight did not want to disappoint her mentor, although her mentor was starting to look like she might have gone just a tiny bit insane after being alone for a thousand years.

Spike's pupils seemed to dilate as he thought about the closet he had been locked into the last time he had disobeyed Twilight , or Twilight guessed that he was thinking anyway. "T-thanks Twilight, for not punishing me, I-I'll just go and search for those books you want then."

The dragon quickly got out of his basket and rushed down the stairs to start searching the library, Twilight pondered that she was getting pretty good at this carrot and stick stuff that the Princess had taught her. She decided that since Spike had not made her breakfast she could probably get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner, they probably sold food there that wasn't as sugary as the name suggests, she could at least get a muffin there and say hello to Pinkie, levitating a saddlebag that had a few bits in it she made her way out of the library.

* * *

The town of Ponyville was bustling with activity compared to when she was walking through it the night before, ponies trotted around at a far more sedate pace than she remembered back in Canterlot and the whole place was just far less crowded.

Twilight went towards Sugarcube Corner, its unique and colorful design clearly showing her where the building was located, when she went inside she could see Pinkie was working at a counter that had many different types of treats and pastries on display behind a glass display case, Since no other pony was attempting to buy anything Twilight used this chance to get herself a muffin.

"Hey Pinkie, I want to buy a muffin."

Pinkie Pie turned to Twilight. "Oh, hey, Twilight, that will be five bits." Pinkie then grabbed one of the muffins that was on display behind the glass case and place it on the counter.

"So, Pinkie, whenever you finish work, we should hang out."

Pinkie's eyes seemed to light up with an eldritch fire when Twilight said those words." Twilight, that's a brilliant idea! I'll head over to the library in a few hours when I finish up here. I'll see if I can bring Dashie, I saw her sleeping on a cloud earlier so i don't think that she's doing anything important."

She levitated five bits out of her bag and placed them on the counter, grabbing the muffin she muttered a quick goodbye to Pinkie and left Sugarcube Corner. She decided that going back to the library would be unfair to Spike, he deserved a little more time to search for the books she had asked for.

Deciding to look around the town a bit more, Twilight took a look at the buildings around her, very few of them looked like they were shops, most of them looked like houses, not surprising since Ponyville didn't really look like it had much in it besides a bakery and a really big farm.

From where she was she could see several stalls in the town square selling food, a shop called quills and sofas that she guessed sold quills and sofas and a shop that had a sign with a bar of chocolate and some cotton candy on it. Twilight figured that since ponies seemed to have a slightly disturbing ability to match up names to cutie marks and everypony seemed intent on getting a job that matched up to those, It was very likely that Lyra's friend Bon-Bon worked in a confectionary.

Heading into the shop twilight saw a single earth pony mare at the counter, the shop itself was full of all sorts of candies. Since it would be a little awkward for Twilight to just ask if she knew Lyra so she grabbed a chocolate bar with her magic and levitated it over to the mare she assumed was Bon-Bon, looking at the wrapping of the bar she could see that it cost two bits.

"Hey, this chocolate bar, it costs two bits, right?" At the mare's nod she levitated two bits out of her saddlebag and dropped them on the counter. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, I just moved into Ponyville a few days ago."

The mare seemed to perk up at a chance for some conversation. "Oh, hi Twilight, my name is Bon-Bon, welcome to Ponyville. Remember, if you are looking for chocolate and other candies, you should come here. We have a much better range then Sugarcube Corner. A completely different selection too, also, they spit in their food and you shouldn't go there.

Twilight decided that the confectionary may not be doing very well and attempted to steer conversation towards finding out about Lyra, "That's just great, thanks for the advice. So, Bon-Bon, I was talking to Lyra yesterday and she mentioned that you know her, total coincidence that I happened to run into you, but since I did, I was hoping, could you tell me a bit about her? I knew her when she lived in Canterlot and it's nice to see a familiar face here."

Bon-Bon seemed rather surprised."Lyra never told me she lived in Canterlot, she just showed up about a year ago and eventually she moved in with me. it's kinda weird that she never mentioned it," The earth pony shrugged, "Well, I'll ask her about it when I see her again."

Twilight figured that while she wasn't exactly the most social of ponies back in Canterlot, she would notice if somepony that she knew moved away. Deciding to deal with this later, she bade farewell to Bon-Bon and after receiving another friendly warning to not buy anything at Sugarcube Corner she headed back to the library.

* * *

After entering the library, Twilight noticed Spike sitting at the wooden table that was in her kitchen connecting to the main room. He was eating some of the gems that Twilight bought to supplement his diet and provide the nutrients that eating meat would normally give him.

"So, Spike, you had plenty of time to find books on Nightmare Moon, So tell me, did you find anything?"

The dragon stopped eating his gems and standing up from the chair, he turned to face Twilight." Yes, I found a book a book on Night Mare Moon, it didn't look very good though, it just barely mentioned her, it also seemed kinda inaccurate, but it was all I could find, sorry." The dragon cowered slightly anticipating the punishment that he may receive." Also, a letter came from the Princess, I left that and the book on the table next to your bed.

Twilight decided that the Princess might be wrong and that Spike didn't need to be punished for every little thing he did wrong." That's fine Spike, you tried, that's good enough" The dragon seemed suprised but quickly composed himself and ran off into the kitchen and Twilight went upstairs to read a book that she hoped would put her fears at ease.


	3. Chapter 3

Twilight was shocked by both the contents of the book and the letter she had received from the Princess, after years of having absolutely no interest in the Grand Galloping Gala, the Princess had decided that sending her an extra invitation would be enough to convince her to go to it and the book Spike had gotten was an old history book that just barely mentioned how Nightmare Moon led a war and a few ponies died, it didn't go into detail or mention Princess Luna at all!

Placing the letter and invitations back onto her bedside table, Twilight took the book and went back downstairs to re-shelve it. Making her way down Twilight saw Pinkie Pie walk inside with Rainbow Dash following closely behind her, ignoring them, Twilight walked over to the shelf and levitated the book onto it, she turned to Rainbow and Pinkie. "Hey girls, it's good to see the both of you, it's quite a surprise actually, since you didn't do anything crazy, like knock on the door."

Rainbow looked slightly abashed but Pinkie seemed to take it as a compliment. "Thanks Twilight! We came over, just like I said we would!

Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Hey Twi-." Whatever the Pegasus was going to say was cut off as Pinkie started to shout over her.

"Twilight! What'cha doing?" The pink pony rushed up to Twilight and when she stopped she could feel her hot breath on her.

Feeling a bit violated, Twilight quickly distanced herself from her; the pink pony seemed to take the hint and did not attempt to invade Twilight's personal space again." I read a book, about Equestrian history, it wasn't very good, apparently Nightmare Moon killed a few ponies during her uprising, that's fine, but it also seems like Princess Luna didn't exist, no mention of her anywhere, I'm fairly sure that Princess Luna exists"

Rainbow Dash seemed to lose interest completely at the mention of a book and fluttered her wings in irritation, but Pinkie looked vaguely interested. "Y'know, Twilight, Sometimes books are a bit biased, or maybe Luna doesn't exist, you ever think about that? Anyway, you're the Princess' student; did you get an invite to the Grand Galloping Gala? Maybe you can bring a guest too?" Rainbow Dash perked up when she heard this and her expression went from one of disinterest to a look of hunger at the thought of getting into the prestigious event.

"No."

Pinkie pressed on. "I bet you did."

Twilight wasn't really surprised that her new 'friends' had already started to exploit their positions and leech off her status and prestige as the student of the Princess. "Pinkie, I did get an invite for the Gala and I got a second one so I could bring a guest, but I could never choose between my friends, it would be wrong of me, I would feel so guilty."

Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Twi, I bet you could ask the Princess to invite all of us, I'm sure that she would send extra tickets for us, we did stop Nightmare Moon, we're heroes!" The Pegasus fluffed her feathers and puffed out her chest in a victory pose.

"Rainbow, I'm sorry, that's a really great idea, but the Princess said that I can't get extra tickets, sorry." Twilight replied in the saddest tone she could manage while she inwardly celebrated at being able to avoid going to the Gala.

"That sucks, but if the Princess said that you can't get extra tickets then I guess none of us can go."

"That's the idea; I will sacrifice my chance to go to the Gala to show solidarity with my friends. So, how about to take our minds off it, we go drink some tea?"

Rainbow extended her wings. "That's a terrible idea Twi, How about we go outside and you can watch me fly around for a few hours, a live performance of my magnificent flying skills, you'll have the time of your life." Her wings were twitching in excitement at the prospect of either flight or having an audience.

Twilight was unsure if Rainbow was serious about that idea. "Well, that sounds… fun." She turned to Pinkie to see what she thought of Rainbow's idea, but the pink pony had a blank expression on her face and was staring at a shelf of books

"Pinkie!"

Pinkie gave off a startled gasp and turned to Twilight. " Oh! What did I miss? I just kinda' drifted off a bit."

Twilight sighed in exasperation. "We were just talking about Rainbow's idea about watching her fly, what do you think about that?" Twilight winked at Pinkie, desperately hoping that she would catch on.

"Sure, that sounds fun, let's go do that!"

Twilight sighed.

Four hours later and Rainbow Dash had finally decided that she was too tired to continue her underwhelming aerial performance and went back to her home in the clouds to rest. Pinkie pie had left about an hour after Dash had started flying, saying she had to go see Applejack and help her at the farm.

Since Rainbow did not seem to care about where she flew they had only gone a short distance from the library and Twilight intended to head back to the library to read a book and pretend that she had not watched a vain Pegasus fly for almost four hours.

Just before she went into the library Twilight saw Lyra walking just down the path, Twilight figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to question Lyra about her somehow living here when Twilight was certain that she had lived in Canterlot at the same time.

She shouted to Lyra to get her attention." Hey! Lyra! Over here!"

The mare looked she was about to run, before she quickly made her way over to Twilight. "H-hey Twilight, how're you doing?"

Twilight ignored Lyra's comment. "I want to talk, come inside to my library, we can drink tea and catch up on all the stuff we did in Canterlot"

Lyra glanced around nervously. "Oh, ah, o-ok Twilight, I have some spare time, sounds great to spend that time with a friend from Canterlot, hehe." She went into the library when Twilight opened the door and beckoned for her to follow.

When Lyra was inside the library Twilight slammed the door shut and advanced menacingly toward her. Lyra backed away and knocked several book off a shelf that was against the wall when she ran out of space.

"Spike! Get over here, I need you."

The purple dragon quickly ran into the room after Twilight called him. "Good, you came, Spike, I need you to help me with Lyra here, if she attacks me, you have to jump in the way and slow her down enough for me to kill her." Twilight turned back to Lyra, who was cowering in the corner. "So, who are you? You're clearly not Lyra, she would have at least known that I never talked to anypony back in Canterlot."

Lyra bolted toward the door, Twilight began to cast a spell as Spike jumped at her to slow her down. He landed on her head and Lyra shook him off, sending him flying through the air before he landed on the ground in the middle of the room, Spike's sudden weight on Lyra managed to put her off-balance and she tumbled before sliding into the library door.

That was all the time Twilight needed to finish her spell and a purple light from her horn and hit Lyra, knocking her out. Ignoring her for the moment, Twilight ran over to where Spike was lying on the ground and frantically began nudging him with her hoof. "Spike! Wake up! Oh not good, not good, Wake up Spike!"

The dragon groaned and Twilight was ecstatic to see that he was not bleeding, "L-Lyra." The dragon groaned out.

Twilight panicked, feeling torn between dealing with the green mare and making sure that Spike was not in any immediate danger. "O-ok Spike, you just w-wait there, ok?" Twilight turned toward where Lyra had fell, A black creature that resembled a pony had taken the place of the green mare, luckily, Twilight's spell had worked and it was unconscious , having no time to think on it, she grabbed the creature with her levitation and dragged it towards he basement. Opening the door she carelessly threw the creature inside before slamming the door and locking it with her magic.

Looking back to Spike, Twilight saw that the dragon had managed to get up and was now swaying slightly on his feet and was slowly moving toward Twilight, she rushed over to him and let him use her neck to balance. "Spike, you should just go sit down now, I just put Lyra in the basement."

"Okay Twilight, but… were you actually going to kill her?"

Twilight picked Spike up with her magic and gently moved him to a chair in the kitchen, "No, I wasn't going to do that, it would have been going too far, but it looks like it scared Lyra, I was just hoping that she would tell me what she was doing in Ponyville. I guess I messed that up, but I do remember a myth about creatures that resembled ponies and killed them, then replaced them to feed off of love, I have no idea what to do with her though, she clearly didn't kill Lyra if I saw her in Canterlot."

Twilight shrugged. "We have a few hours before she wakes up, I'll go see what I can find about changelings, you just wait here and rest."


	4. Chapter 4

A few hours later and Twilight was still debating what to do with the changeling, she had assumed they were only a myth and Twilight had no idea what to do with her, a rapping on her door took her out of her reverie. Heading over and opening it she found Applejack and Pinkie Pie waiting outside.

"Hey Twi, Can Pinkie and I come in?"

Twilight giggled nervously, "C-could you come back later? I'm really busy now."Twilight began to close the door.

"It can't wait, Applejack said, pushing against the door and forcing her way into the library with Pinkie following in after, "Pinkie here said that you got some tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and that you can bring somepony along," Applejack gestured to herself. "We decided that it'd be best if I came along with you."

Twilight backed away from them, "Didn't Pinkie tell you? I said that I could never choose between my friends so I wouldn't go at all, as a show of loyalty," Twilight pointed her hoof at the door, "So, I'm sorry to say that you can't go. Even if Pinkie does think that you should go to it, it just wouldn't be fair on the rest of our friends.

"You remember Nightmare Moon? We have a great chance to get rid of her now, we could stop her before she tries to take over Equestria. I was sure that you were willing to help us stop her"

Pinkie bounced over, "Come on Twilight, it'll be great fun, we already have it all planned out. you don't even have to kill her yourself, we can do it for you! All you have to do is let Applejack go to the Gala with you." She continued bouncing excitedly on the spot.

"There is one other tiny thing you have to do for us though Twi, Pinkie and I, we got most of what we need already, but we need you to go get something from the griffins. It's just a little dagger that you need to kill an immortal, it'll be easy"

Twilight had heard terrible things about griffins, the ponies in Canterlot enjoyed occasionally gossiping about them occasionally and the books she had read went into detail about how primitive and warlike they were, committing atrocities in the many wars that they started or fighting each other whenever they weren't fighting another race.

"I don't think that's a good idea, aren't griffins really dangerous? Don't they get into wars constantly and fight each other for fun? You could probably get somepony better than me to take care of that."

Pinkie's mane deflated and she glared at Twilight. "Hey, now that you know this is happening you got to pull your weight or we can't trust you and then we would have to make sure you can't tell anypony about this, also, that's really racist, like, super racist. Are you a racist Twilight?"

"I am not racist! Wait... Did you just threaten me? Twilight said,feeling a bit intimidated by the pink pony, she feared her reality bending power and doubted that she could stop her if she actually tried to kill her.

Applejack put a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder "There's no need to get violent Pinkie, I'm sure that Twilight isn't racist and will help us kill Nightmare Moon." She focused her attention on Twilight. " But, yes, that was a threat. You understand that we can't trust you if you don't help us right?"

"I-I guess, Nightmare Moon does need to be stopped, and you did trust me a little by talking to me about this, I-I'll help you." Twilight was terrified, she hadn't a chance against Pinkie's ability to warp reality and Applejack could still probably finish her off if even she managed to hold Pinkie off.

Pinkie's mane re-inflated and Applejack beamed ecstatically. "Great, I knew we could count on you Twi, we would take care of it ourselves but we have a few other things to prepare. Anyway, you just head on over to the griffin lands, we don't really know where to get the dagger, but it'll probably be easy enough to find if you search around a bit. So, now that that's all sorted out, Pinkie and I will go and you can have some time to get ready, I guess you can bring Spike too if you can't leave him here on his own."

Applejack and Pinkie Pie left, leaving Twilight alone to deal with the task that had been pushed upon her, having almost no knowledge of the griffin lands, she doubted that she could find a tiny dagger. But she had to do her part to protect Equestria, a shout coming from her basement reminded Twilight of her prisoner.

Hatching a devilish scheme, Twilight figured that she might be able to sort out two of her problems at once. Calling Spike, she went to the basement door.

* * *

"It's very simple Spike, just send this letter to Princess Celestia if I don't come back up or you think it's the Changeling" Twilight explained impatiently to the dragon, She had already told the dragon about her encounter with Applejack and Pinkie Pie and what she wanted from the Changeling.

Spike scratched his head in confusion. "I don't get it, how do I know that it's you and not the Changeling? She could disguise as you and I could never tell the difference."

Twilight sighed in exasperation. "It's not that hard Spike! As long as there is only one of me and something that isn't me down there then it's fine, even if she does have some freaky powers to copy all my memories, she won't be able to make a

copy of herself, probably, so it shouldn't be hard for you to figure out if it's the real me or not. You probably have a concussion but it's not too hard, you'll be able to work it out"

Twilight opened the basement, heading down the stairs she kept alert for any sign of the Changeling, when she reached the bottom she found the changelings sitting in a corner, waiting for her. She looked to be as tall as Twilight and had holes littered through her hooves and mane, her body was completely black and she had a small spire rising out of the back of her head.

Twilight was brought out of her inspection by an interrupting voice. "So, are you going to kill me now?"

Twilight decided to be blunt. "No, I was just bluffing earlier, I didn't really expect you to try running like that."

The Changeling laughed. "What did you expect to happen when you threatened to kill me? That I would give up and tell you everything, perhaps?"

Twilight felt her cheeks reddening. "Actually that was kinda what I was hoping for," She recomposed herself as she continued, "But that's all in the past, I'm willing to let you go free and pretend this all never happened, I know you never killed Lyra anyway."

The Changeling raised an appraising eyebrow. "I'd like if we could put all this behind us too. So, tell me, what do you want in return for your generosity?" Sarcasm dripping from voice.

Twilight ignored the Changeling's tone."It's pretty simple really, A few ponies are planning to kill Nightmare Moon and I've been told to find an old dagger that's used for killing immortals, all you have to do is help me find it."

The Changeling's pupils narrowed and she waited a moment before responding "Where would this dagger be then, if you need to rely on something like me for help?"

Twilight shuffled her hooves. "Oh, it's nowhere dangerous, just somewhere in the griffin lands, I'm sure finding it will be easy." Twilight gave a beaming smile to get her point across.

The Changeling sat up and took a few steps closer to Twilight. "Fine, if you let me go and I'll help you get that dagger."

Twilight nodded ecstatically. "Great then, also, its probably best if you don't advertise us going together at all. I kinda got threatened and if they find out that I told you, Pinkie might kill us both."

The Changeling shuddered. "Pinkie Pie's involved in this? Okay, I'll keep this little trip to myself. When are you leaving?"

"Well, Spike and I are going to take the train to Baltimare tomorrow and then get a ship to take us to the griffins. You should take the same train and we won't have to hide after that."

Twilight started moving back toward the stairs motioning with her hoof for the Changeling to follow. Opening the door she found Spike looking back at her. "Twilight? Or are you the Changeling? Get back!"

"No, Spike, Lyra is right here," She pointed at the Changeling who had followed her closely up the stairs, "She's agreed to help us out and she'll just be going now."

"See you tomorrow then Twilight." She changed back into the form of a green mare and walked out of the library.


	5. Chapter 5

Twilight looked out at the Baltimare train station, it was much fancier than the one back in Ponyville, with a large covered area for multiple trains to depart from. Heading off the train Twilight saw that the station was far more crowded than the relatively empty one she had left. Looking through the crowd, she spotted Lyra standing near the exit of the station, she was quite surprised that Lyra had kept her word and had been on the train but was glad that she would have some assistance with her task. Checking to make sure that Spike was following behind, She went over to Lyra.

The Changeling waited for her to speak when she reached her. "Hello Lyra,I was thinking that we could get a boat to the griffin territory from here, or do you have any secrets that could make the journey easier?"

Lyra rolled her eyes before responding, "No, not really, or do you mean that you are so socially inept that you want me to go book the tickets for you?" She chuckled at her joke.

Twilight bowed her head in embarrassment, "if it's not too much trouble..." The changeling looked at her with disbelieving expression plastered across her face.

Lyra turned to Spike, who was hiding behind Twilight and trembling slightly, "Little slave, is she serious about this or is she trying to be polite about wanting to be away from me?" She focused an intimidating glare on the dragon.

Spike took a few shaky breaths before he answered, "She doesn't really get out much, she's kinda shy about meeting new ponies." The dragon seemed to gain confidence as he spoke and was now standing straightly.

"Fine, I'll go get the tickets, just meet me back here in the morning." Lyra huffed out, she then turned and quickly left the station.

"Twilight, can we really trust her? Why is she even helping us?" The dragon asked quizzically.

"I'm not really sure about her honestly, but as long as she thinks that I can actually do something to her if she betrays us while we are gone then I'm not going to correct her," She patted the dragons head comfortingly, "Besides Spike, it's not your place to think about these things, you don't need to worry your little dragon head about it."

Spike muttered something that Twilight could not catch before responding. "We should do something about it though, before she tries to kill us or something."

Twilight saw that Spike was starting to get rather confident and decided that she needed to curb his assertive behavior, she remembered from her lessons with the princess that dragons would start to get extremely aggressive if they started thinking that they could rise above their station. She lightly smacked Spike across the head with her hoof.

"Bad Spike! No questioning me, I am in charge here, not you." Twilight felt pride at having stopped the dragon before he went mad with power. The dragon in question was now rubbing the back of his head and shaking slightly while looking at Twilight warily.

"S-sorry Twilight, I won't do it again. I p-promise." The dragon stuttered out shakily,he swayed slightly on his feet and he seemed to look on the verge of tears, Twilight was slightly concerned that she hit him too hard.

Twilight's sympathy for the dragon won over the need to be stern with him and she picked him up with her magic before depositing him on her back. "You don't really look like you can walk now, sorry for hitting you so hard Spike, but you know that you can't go around being so aggressive."

Craning her neck back, Twilight saw that for some reason the dragon bore an extremely confused look on his face. Ignoring this, she walked out into the streets of Baltimare. The port city was far busier and more industrialized then Ponyville, she could see many ponies going about their business. Twilight figured that since Lyra was going to get the transport that all she needed to do was the find a place to sleep for the night before meeting her in the morning.

* * *

Hours later and Twilight was still wandering the streets of Balitimare. Her search for a cheap inn had been foiled by her meager funds, she now scoured the seedier parts of the city in search of more reasonably priced accommodation. Nightfall had come and Twilight was now desperate to get inside before the less favorable denizens of the city came out. Spotting a rather inviting looking tavern she made her way into the establishment.

Twilight felt that the Tavern had a rather rustic feel to it, the place seemed rather empty with only a few tables being occupied by small groups that looked much friendlier than the other places she had searched, although that still left much to be desired.

Twilight saw a Navy colored unicorn mare was serving drinks to the few ponies that were up front nearer to the bar. Heading up, Twilight coughed to get her attention.

The mare turned to her along with the other ponies that were being served, glad she got their attention, Twilight spoke. "Hello, I was hoping that I could get a room for the night here, how much do they cost?"

The mare took a look at her back before responding. "That depends, will that purple thing you got on your back there be joining you?"

"This is Spike, He's a dragon." Twilight poked the dragon with her magic, waking him up. "He's pretty well behaved, he won't go around breaking stuff or anything like that. I trained him myself." Twilight stated, feeling pride about how well she had trained the dragon.

The mare stared at Spike for a few long moment before responding. "Well, if you're sure he won't destroy anything then you can stay her for five bits."

Twilight was overjoyed, that was a far better price than the ones she had gotten earlier, "Okay, here's five bits." She picked out five bits from her saddlebag and levitated them out onto the counter.

The mare grabbed them with her magic as soon as Twilight let go of them. "Right, follow me then, I'll bring you to a room." She moved out of the bar, motioning for Twilight to follow and moved further back into the building. Leading Twilight through the back of the establishment she went through a door that Twilight hadn't spotted before, Following her in, Twilight saw that she had brought her into a dingy looking room. A single bed lay propped up against the wall and a chair was looking quite lonely on the other side of the room, the room did have a closet though, which surprised her since she didn't really expect the kind of ponies who owned clothes would frequent this place.

"Right, you can sleep here, I'm not getting a bed for the dragon and I'm not giving you any free food, so if you want anything your going to have to pay for it, tomorrow anyway, I'm not doing anything this late." She brusquely stated before turning around and slamming the door shut, leaving Twilight and Spike alone.

"Well, this place looks fantastic." Twilight said while placing Spike on the floor. "But much more importantly, it was a great price and you said that I should just give up and stay in one of those upper class places for twenty bits. Twenty bits, Spike!"

"I think this place still looks kinda creepy." Spike said while curling up on the floor.

"Ah, Spike, like I said before, you don't need to worry your little dragon head about such things." Twilight gave Spike an affectionate rub with her hoof. " Now, you just make yourself comfortable there, if you try hard enough I'm sure you can pretend that you're really sleeping in your basket." Twilight climbed onto the bed and set her head down.

* * *

A shuffling sound awoke Twilight, opening her eyes she saw that a few ponies had broken in and that Spike was being levitated out of the room.

Without moving, she watched as they wordlessly took Spike before the majority of them left, a brown coated earth pony stallion remaining behind. He started to approach Twilight.

Twilight rushed to comprehend exactly what was happening but her mind was drawing a blank, in a moment of clarity she focused solely on her assailant, Who had reached her and was now raising his hoof. Anticipating a strike, Twilight grabbed his neck with her magic and crushed it.

He fell to the ground with a soft thud. Twilight expected that she should feel disgust and revulsion at what she had done, but all she could feel was a rush at how close she had come to death and relief that he was an earth pony and not something that actually had a chance at fighting back, like a unicorn. Ignoring the body, she tried to think of exactly why anypony would bother to come and take Spike.

Having no idea of their goals she shoved it to the back of her mind, she left her room and went back into the main area of the Tavern. The place was completely deserted and Twilight could not see where the other ponies had gone. An inspection of the bar revealed a hatch, opening it up, Twilight found a stairs leading further down. Having no better ideas of where to go she made her way down the stairs.

The area was darkly lit but judging from the barrels that lined the sides of walls Twilight figured that she was in the wine cellar, she could see a small hallway and went through. It was poorly lit but Twilight could see that it got brighter further ahead, she could also hear some voices coming from further down. Emboldened by this, she continued until she could see that the hallway led into a much larger room.

It was extremely large and Twilight could see what looked like an altar in the center, carvings decorated the walls of the room, although what they depicted was hard to tell, she decided that it resembled an ocean. A few cages were lined up against the wall nearest her and she spotted Spike, who had now woken up and looked quite terrified in one of them.

Seeing no sign of Spikes captors, she approached his cage. When she was close she tapped the side to alert the dragon to her presence before she looked at the cages lock, by a stroke of fortune she found that they had left the key inside of it, although the lock was quite large and had just about enough distance that Spike would have trouble opening it even with claws.

She turned the key, opening the cage.

The dragon made his way out and looked at Twilight, she could see fear in his eyes. "Spike, where did the ponies that grabbed you go?" She whispered.

The dragon took a second to compose himself before pointing toward the other side of the room. "I saw them go that way, I think they want to k-kill me, they were talking about sacrificing me to their lord!" He was shaking quite a bit and Twilight didn't think that he would be able to make his way out.

"That's fairly creepy Spike, but they didn't even leave somepony here to guard you so I doubt that they were that into it. We should take the opportunity and leave before they notice us though." The dragon was still shaking with fear and didn't respond when Twilight poked him.

Sighing, she put Spike on her back and started going back down the hallway, glad that she was still undetected she made her way back up into the tavern and approached the door. Just before she reached it, the door swung open, revealing the barkeep from before.

She walked in, Twilight was glad to see that she had left the door unblocked, taking a moment to look around her gaze fell upon Twilight, it took a moment for her to speak . "By Smooze! What are you doing here!" She took a breath and that seemed to calm her momentarily, although she looked rather panicked at seeing Twilight. "Now, just put that dragon down and you can go on your way and we can pretend this never happened."

Twilight doubted that they would actually let her go and instead of responding she gathered her magic and slammed it into the mare, stunning her momentarily. She then galloped through the door before the unicorn could stop her.

Quickly putting as much distance as she could between them she could hear the mare yelling for her compatriots. "The sacrifice is escaping!" Afraid that if she stopped the mare's friends would come out of the shadows, Twilight kept galloping, not stopping until she was several streets away, She was still afraid that at any time she could be attacked by Spike's captors.

She noticed that she had gone back into the more reputable parts of the city, a few ponies were still around and Twilight was glad that if she were attacked, she would not be completely alone, she saw that it was starting to get brighter and decided that it would be best if she just loitered inside one of the hotels in the area Choosing at random Twilight made her way inside, hoping she wouldn't be kicked out if she waited there too long.

Inside, Twilight chose a secluded corner and dumped Spike there. The dragon seemed to have gotten over his fear and now looked as if he could speak. "Spike, hide in this corner and try not to be noticed, They might not go notice me but you have no chance of blending in with a crowd." She positioned herself in front of the dragon so that he was mainly blocked from view from the entrance of the hotel, "It's only going to be an hour or two before dawn and then we can go see Lyra at the train station, she'll be able to fight them if they come back."


	6. Chapter 6

Morning came. having had a restless night due to being on the lookout for her assailants. Twilight was starting to drift off and was looking forward to finding Lyra. Spike had fallen asleep and Twilight hadn't bothered to wake him since he had spent most of his time awake muttering to himself out of fear.

Waking Spike and telling him to follow her, Twilight went out into the streets of Baltimare. The streets were once again packed with ponies going about their business and Twilight felt quite safe among the crowds. Quickly making her way to the train station, Twilight found Lyra already waiting for her.

"You don't look very good, did you not get any sleep last night?" Lyra said as Twilight approached her, she had an amused look on her face and Twilight had a suspicion that the changeling was making a joke at her expense.

"Were you... Watching us? Did you see us go through that entire ordeal and not do anything to help us? Why would you do that!" Twilight snapped in anger at her, feeling frustration at the changeling leaving her to suffer alone when she could have helped her.

Lyra looked shocked by Twilight's accusation. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. But it sounds like you're feeling a little bitter about it, care to enlighten me?" She moved close to Twilight as she spoke and laid a comforting hoof upon her.

Twilight ignored the odd behavior and vented her frustrations to the changeling. "Last night was terrible! I spent so long going around trying to find good accommodation at a reasonable price and then when I finally manage to find a place, I get attacked and they try to take Spike!" Twilight was hit by a sudden revelation, "Oh, dear Celestia, I killed a pony!"

Lyra interrupted Twilight before she could continue. "Twilight, I know you might be finding that a bit difficult to deal with, but that is not the kind of thing you want to talk about here." She glanced around to see if anypony had taken notice of their conversation. "Anyway, I managed to get us transport on a East Griffonia Company ship that's heading out today."

Twilight had heard of the East Griffonia Company. They were a trading company that were responsible for a lot of the more exotic materials that she had seen for sale in Canterlot and quite a few of the nobles she had met mentioned that they had bolstered their wealth by investing in the company.

"I didn't think that a trading company would be interested in taking passengers." Twilight said, thoughts of her encounter the night before momentarily forgotten.

Lyra chuckled, "Well, the ship is quite empty before they get there, so it wasn't hard to convince the captain to take us on for the trip. We should probably head out there now, unless you have anything you want to take care of first?"

* * *

The smell of salt water assaulted Twilight's nostrils when they arrived to the docks of Baltimare. Several ships were docked and Twilight saw that many ponies loading or unloading cargo with a few griffins mixed in among the groups.

Eventually, Lyra came to a halt in front of one of the larger ships, the sails of the ship were already out and it looked like it was ready to depart. "Here we are then, this will be our transport across the ocean to the distant land of Griffonia!" Lyra exclaimed, turning to Twilight and finishing with a dramatic flourish of her hoof.

Twilight sighed but felt slightly amused at the changeling's antics. "That's great Lyra, how much will this cost? I didn't bring many bits with me."

Lyra seemed surprised when Twilight said this. "Really? Even though you were going to a far away place and had no idea how long it would take you?" Lyra laughed, "Luckily, I manage to convince the captain to bring us for free. Actually, I can see him right now"

Turning around, Twilight saw a grey coated unicorn stallion approaching them, he looked fairly old and she saw he had a small scar underneath his right eye. Following closely behind him was a large griffin. It had what Twilight assumed was a common appearance with brown and white feathers and walked with a slight limp.

Lyra moved over to them with Twilight following. "Hello captain."Lyra said graciously, she then turned to Twilight to make an introduction. "Twilight, this is captain Dented Hull. He's the one who has so graciously offered to bring us to Griffonia."

The captain spoke. "It's no burden on us I assure you, I couldn't just leave the two of you here when you were in such desperate need of a way to get to Griffonia." Twilight saw that, for a moment, his eyes flashed from a light blue color to a vivid green.

Lyra spoke again. "Well, we're still really grateful that you were willing to take us along, but if you don't mind, my friend here didn't get much sleep and she's quite exhausted." Lyra said.

Dented Hull nodded and motioned to the Griffin who had followed him. "Of course, Lesra will bring you to your quarters. I hope you two don't mind sharing, but this ship wasn't really made for passengers and only has one spare cabin."

The Griffin spoke up, speaking in a rather forlorn voice. "Follow me then, I'll lead you to your room." He went onto the ship, Ppausing on the deck to see if they had followed. Once he saw that Twilight and Lyra had followed he went closer to the back of the ship, opening a door that led further down.

He didn't' take them very far, stopping near the bottom of the stairs outside another door. "This is your room, if there is nothing else, I have to go back to the captain." With that he turned and went back up the stairs, leaving them alone.

Twilight huffed in frustration, irritated by the Griffin's rude behavior. "He didn't seem very happy about bringing us here. He was quite rude about it.."

Lyra laughed quietly. "Well, you can't expect him to be too happy about his position here..." Lyra said. "Anyway let's go take a look at our room."

Twilight didn't really see why the Griffin wouldn't be happy but didn't dwell on it. Following Lyra into the cabin revealed that they were given a rather large room, even when she took into account that three of them would be staying in it. The room had two large beds on opposite sides but lacked any other furniture. Twilight figured it was serviceable, although she did wonder where Spike could sleep.

She looked at the little dragon, who had been quietly following. "I can't see any basket you could sleep in Spike, So it looks like you'll just have to share with me."

The dragon nodded dumbly and Lyra looked surprised at the offer. She voiced her concerns to Twilight. "You know, you could just let him sleep in the same quarters as the few Griffins they have on the ship, I doubt the captain would mind."

"No chance, I almost lost him last night and I feel a bit nervous about leaving him alone." Twilight shuddered as the memories of the encounter flashed across her mind.

"Yes, about that, you said you killed someone? Do you want to talk about it?" Lyra said sympathetically as Twilight began to recount the events of the night before.


End file.
